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Purdue, Jeff Brohm agree on lucrative new long-term deal after his first season

Purdue must’ve been happy with Jeff Brohm’s first year on the job as his contract was revamped Thursday. (AP)

Purdue’s Board of Trustees approved an extended and enhanced contract for football coach Jeff Brohm on Thursday, pushing his total compensation to an average annual salary of more than $4 million by the latter stages of the deal.

Brohm’s new contract is a seven-year deal worth $26.9 million in supplemental income. When his $300,000 base salary is included across the lifetime of the deal, the total is $29 million. That’s an upgrade from the original deal of six years for $20 million.

Last fall, USA Today’s salary database listed 20 college football head coaches making $4 million per year or more in 2017. Five of those coaches were subsequently fired.

Brohm’s first season as coach of the Boilermakers was a major success. Purdue went 7-6, with its first winning record, first bowl victory and most Big Ten wins since 2011. The Boilermakers had won just nine games total in the previous four seasons before Brohm arrived from Western Kentucky.

Brohm’s strong season, coming on the heels of 30 wins in three seasons at WKU, had him on Tennessee’s radar last winter during the Volunteers’ meandering search for a replacement to Butch Jones. But the job was never offered to Brohm, and Tennessee wound up hiring Alabama assistant Jeremy Pruitt.

Brohm’s buyout is a hefty $4.4 million until Dec. 6, 2018, when it then declines to $3.3 million and again to $2.2 million on Dec. 6, 2019.